08 Sep 2019

Managing Director of Unitrans Botswana, Mr Brian Swift has emphasised the socio-economic impact of road traffic crashes on the wellbeing of the society.

Mr Swift was giving a keynote address at the official launch of the 2019 major road safety campaign in Serowe recently.

He said children are robbed of their parents and their dreams shattered as they are left vulnerable to all forms of social challenges, including abuse.

“Couples are robbed of their spouses, while parents lose those they financially depend on. Families lose breadwinners, plunging them back to a state of indigence and eventually defeating government efforts of poverty alleviation,’’ he said.

Mr Swift stated that the nation was deprived of the much needed skills that the government had invested heavily in to develop, adding that such had the potential to negatively impact on government’s efforts to transition from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy.

He said the national transformational agenda Vision 2036 aspires to transform Botswana from an upper middle-income country to high-income country by 2036.

‘’The intention is to achieve prosperity for all and this calls for participation and action by all. Unfortunately, road safety has not yet been elevated to national priority despite all the challenges that road traffic crashes have on the socio-economic development of the country,’’ he noted.

Mr Swift noted that all high performing economies of the world had prioritised provision of a safe transportation system and Sweden was one such example.

He further noted that such a country could not create a safe road transport system unless they embraced a culture of road safety, starting with officials who drive road safety, road engineers, road users, public users, private sector and civil society.

He added that Botswana Police Service’s annual accident report shows that the Serowe policing district is the second leading area in terms of road traffic crash fatalities in Botswana, contributing around 10 per cent of total deaths.

Meanwhile, the director of  traffic, Senior Assistant Commissioner, Mr Katlholo Mosimanegape encouraged artists in Botswana to disseminate information about road safety through their music.

He said road accidents were sometimes caused by motorists’ attitudes on the road, adding that most of them refuse to obey road signs. Mr Mosimanegape stated that drunken driving, careless driving and speeding were common causes of road accidents. He said from January to August this year, 278 deaths were recorded.

He said last year 289 lives were lost, further indicating that most accidents occurred during the festive seasons and weekends because during those days, there was a lot of movement.

The event was organised by Motor Vehicle Accident Fund under the theme: Pushing A Culture of Road Safety, in line with its Road Safety Strategic Plan 2019-2023, whose vision is Creating A Culture of Road Safety by 2023’. ENDS